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The first edition of GAT Brasil took place last Thursday, bringing together professionals from across the gaming and sports betting ecosystem to address the current state of the sector and its future direction.
Discussions centered on compliance, governance, legal security, and the path toward regulating land-based casinos in the country.
José Anibal Aguirre, Founder and CEO of GAT Events, opened the conference by welcoming the company’s arrival in Brazil.
“It is the largest market in Latin America and has established itself as a benchmark in regulatory matters. That is why we decided to hold an event like this in the country. Discussing the current state of the sector and the future of gaming in the country is what drives us,” he said.
Aguirre also announced that GAT Events will hold the 1st Latin American Responsible Gaming Congress on October 20th and 21st, with support from the Argentine Association of State Lotteries, Quinielas and Casinos (ALEA) and other regional regulators.
Liliana Costa, LatAm Director of World Gaming Business, the event’s global media partner, described Brazil’s transition toward a fully regulated market as a defining moment for the international industry, citing plans to project the country at ICE Barcelona.
Illegal volume matches formal market
Alex Pariente, Chair of the GAT Official Launch Brazil 2026 and Founder of Pariente Advisory, opened the introductory panel with figures on the scale of the regulated market.
“Brazil built its market in 2025, and by the end of the first year, we reached R$37 billion (US$7.4 billion) in GGR. It’s an incredible volume, but we still have incomplete channeling. We have a volume of the same order, estimated at around R$37 billion, still flowing through the illegal gambling chain, which compromises the sector’s credibility,” he said.
Pariente credited the Prize and Betting Secretariat (SPA) with consolidating the formal market but pointed to structural limits: “It is still incomplete, with mirror domains outpacing removal efforts, and the SPA still has a limited team. The regulator needs to be strengthened for the good of the market.“
He put combined offshore and domestic betting volume at roughly R$74 billion (US$14.8 billion), ranking Brazil among the five largest markets worldwide behind the US, UK, Italy and Russia, and argued the country’s iGaming framework should extend the same rigor — KYC, AML, and responsible gaming rules — to land-based casinos.
Lawyers and operators debate enforcement path
The panel “When regulation turns into enforcement: bridging the channeling gap” featured Neil Montgomery as moderator alongside André Santa Ritta and Caio de Souza Loureiro of Tozzini Freire, and Eduardo Ludmer of BetMGM.
Loureiro said reaching 90% regulation would mark a leap in quality for the country, while noting the SPA lacks the structure to combat illegal operators alone.
Santa Ritta pointed to the volume of SPA warnings as encouraging and said the agency is entering a phase focused on cutting off payment processors tied to unlicensed platforms.
Ludmer said new joint liability rules across the payment chain reinforce enforcement, while cautioning that blanket advertising bans could push bettors toward unlicensed sites.
World Cup tested operational capacity
Bárbara Teles, Legal Director at Playtech, moderated a panel with Ricardo Magri, CEO of EBAC, and Leonardo Baptista, CEO of Pay4Fun, on lessons from the World Cup.
Magri said the tournament added relatively few games to operators’ existing portfolios and saw no notable operational risks, though he viewed it as a strong window for marketing activity.
Baptista said Pay4Fun encountered no operational difficulties: “We expected and were prepared to handle 6 transactions per second, but that number stabilized in the 4 range.”
Both noted the main broadcaster’s forced change to advertising formats during the tournament complicated the sector’s messaging, and Magri said operators still lack dedicated responsible-gaming education campaigns beyond mentions embedded in advertising.
B2B certification seen as additional barrier
A panel on “The advancement of B2B licensing in Brazil,” moderated by GLI’s Hugo Leite, included Beatriz Melges of SoftConstruct, Thiago Garrides of Cactus Gaming, and Ana Bárbara Costa of ABRAJOGO.
Leite said certifying the entire supply chain improves regulatory sustainability.
Costa said certifying payment providers helps combat illegal operators, and Melges said supplier screening covering aggregators, payment systems and KYC tools is necessary.
“We are one of the ends of the chain, and we must strengthen the formal market, serving only licensed companies. We have this commitment, and we will not compromise on it,” Garrides said.
Land-based casino bill advances alongside court review
A panel on Bill 2234, moderated by Pariente, included Plínio Lemos Jorge of ANJL, Waldir Marques of TQJ, and Daniel Fernandes of Brasil Fernandes.
Marques said regulating the online market first allows a more measured approach to physical gambling given investment and construction timelines.
Fernandes pointed to a bill pending a Senate vote alongside Supreme Federal Court discussions on General Repercussion 966177, which could overturn the criminal prohibition on gambling under article 50.
Bruno Omori of IDT-CEMA estimated the broader economic impact of legalized casinos, resorts and bingo halls at R$70 billion (US$14 billion), citing effects on real estate, construction and tourism; he noted Brazil drew 9 million foreign tourists in 2025 while 35 million Brazilians traveled abroad, a flow he said physical casinos could substantially increase.
In a related panel, Max Bauer of Novomatic said high investment requirements under the current bill make major operators cautious, while Montgomery called for a dedicated regulatory agency covering both online and future land-based activity.
Prediction markets and lottery sector also addressed
A panel moderated by Sávio Prado, partner at Prado, Castelli, Vasconcelos, examined prediction markets, noting the CMN regulated binary futures while barring their use for sports, political or entertainment events under Resolution No. 5,298.
Guilherme Guimarães of Lance! said Brazilian participation in offshore election betting markets is likely underestimated.
A closing lottery panel included Fabíola Esteves of Loterj, who cited rigorous bidding processes supporting formal operations in Rio de Janeiro.
Iuri Castro, former Undersecretary of Lotteries and Betting, said digitization and jackpot-style products remain underdeveloped compared with other countries and pointed to gamification, following the model of group bets, as a further growth lever.
Alessandro Dantas of Aldeota said Brazil has more than 13 lottery outlets and that group betting has driven sales, calling digital expansion an irreversible path.
Roberto Quattrini of Novomatic highlighted light rail vehicle terminals as a growth area, while noting inconsistent state-level regulation raises costs for suppliers.